Pankaj MANCHNANDA | Sumit GUPTA
(Startup in Heritage and Culture Travel Tech Space, Delhi, India)
Keyword: AR, World Heritage Sites, COVID ready travel, Community Livelihood, SDGs
Augtraveler platform creates enhanced AR, Geo location & Multimedia based curated interpretations for visitors at World Heritage Sites, as well as highlights the Intangible Cultural Heritage of a region, via self-guided geo-location based Cultural Trails.
The adoption of this new age technology is even more purposeful in the current times of the pandemic. It provides us an opportunity to “build back better” when visitation begins to increase again.
‘Better’ in the sense of the SDGs for Augtraveler aligns with the direction of SDG Target 11.4. The Augtraveler platform will on board local communities and provide them with an opportunity to highlight (and preserve) their local tangible and intangible cultural heritage via their unique crafts, art, cuisine, music, dance, etc. to tourists and residents alike.
Our goal is to promote sustainable tourism to these WHS’s where the local community may receive a major share of tourism dollars through the development and promotion of experiential and immersive travel – by directly connecting them to the visitor economy represented by international and domestic tourists. The platform also provides the community with a curated online marketplace, where they can bring forth and list their local crafts, cuisines, handlooms, theater, art, meditation, heritage walks – as a value-added approach which reflects, extends and builds on the heritage and culture of any region. This mandate aligns with UN SDG 8.9, 12.b
An additional spoke is to help younger audiences at schools and help them appreciate India’s rich history and culture in an engaging way. It is our attempt to evolve our monuments from being merely an Instagram photo opportunity, or picnic spot – into knowledge dissemination zones that help to build appreciation and constituencies of support for these Sites. Our vision to evolve this module to broadly align with the intents of SDG Target 4.7.